An Interview With Gavin DeGraw

Alicia: You're currently on tour with Train and the Script. How is that tour going?Gavin: Tour started last week with Michael Franti and Train and Michael Franti played the first two dates and now the Script is on the tour and it’s the three of us. Tour is great; it’s great. It’s really really good, not just the show, but also the backstage vibe between the bands and crew is really cool like family style community.Alicia: Had you ever met any of those guys before?Gavin: Yeah, I don’t think I’ve met the guys from the Script before. Maybe one of them at one point way back. Train I’ve toured with before. We toured with them two summers ago, Train and Maroon 5, so I know them from that. That’s probably why we ended up out here now, we always got along really well and I love their music and their band so I think that really helps the vibe of the tour when we all really like each other and like each other’s music. I love the Script’s music and Train so it’s a really really good natural fit. Alicia: You're latest single "Best I Ever Had" came out last month. How has the response been to that? Are you pleased with the response?Gavin: Oh yeah, it’s been amazing. It’s been out for about two weeks and it’s been a really unexpectedly well-received single and certainly the fastest single I’ve ever had, at least so far. It’s been a really good surprise as an artist to have it this well received. I think that, as an artist, any time you release a single your career is greatly affected by the success of the single. It’s very inspiring and a really exciting moment to be at right now.Alicia: This track seems to have more pop-electronic elements to it compared to some of your previous singles that have come out. Is this any indication of how your next album is going to sound?Gavin: Well it’s interesting; the album is kind of all over the place. I don’t typically write a theme album or any one particular thing so the record is very spread out. This particular song, I think, really embraced a lot of that acoustic guitar that’s happening with Mumford and the Lumineers and stuff like that so we drew that element off that is really an Americana sound. Obviously the sound’s been rock rock for years but fortunately it’s come back around but it was nice to capture it, capture this moment in pop culture that’s open to that type of thing mixed in with some more modern production or approaches to this as well. It’s really good blend of acoustic with some modern sound as well. In the grand scheme of things, I think that right now the landscape of music is fortunately wide open as far as styles that you can put out on airwaves so we’re just embracing this sound. I think it’s a lovely piece of American music culture right now; the fact that everybody’s ears are wide open right now to so many different styles. Alicia: Is there anything else you can tell me about this upcoming release? Like does the album have a title and who did you record with?Gavin: Yeah, the record is called Make A Move. Everything has made a change since I’ve been an artist and my opinion changed so at the moment we’re calling it Make A Move, which is also the name of a track on the album that I wrote with Benny Blanco. Some people would probably know Benny from the song ‘Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5. We did something completely different as well for that song so, I mean, you’ll hear a lot of different percussion styles on the album. Songs like that and songs I wrote with Ryan Tedder on the record, which of course we have worked together in the past and fortunately, had a lot of success. So Ryan and I feel comfortable writing together and working together and pursuing the next sound and song etc. and we wrote two songs, “Believe” and “Finest Hour”. So it’s quite a mixture of songs; there are slower songs on it and some R&B stuff on it so it’s really a journey. As far as “Best I Ever Had” is concerned, that single Martin Johnson and I wrote together. Some people would know Martin from Boys Like Girls and he’s written for Taylor Swift; he’s a very very talented songwriter and producer, very music savvy guy, and I liked his energy in the studio. I was very fortunate to work with the group of people that I did this time around. I think what made this record different this time around from the last record is that I decided to just co-write on the whole album versus going ‘Okay, I’ll write the whole thing by myself” or “I’ll only write a couple songs with other people and then write the rest by myself.” I think that, after co-writing on the last album, I wanted to embrace that again, I just have to say that it’s so worth it working with someone to write songs. They bring in their ideas, their perspective, their own expertise and it keeps you on target, keeps you on track. It makes the sound of your album much more well rounded, much more interesting on top of getting that feel of working with someone one of one. Alicia: Have you been playing any of the new songs at the shows? Or pretty much just “Best I Ever Had”?Gavin: For sure. It’s been amazing playing two or three songs. There have been quite a few songs since the release of Chariot till now, it’s kind of shocking to look back at the amount of catalogue and now we have this upcoming album to factor in. It’s fascinating to see how much the set takes shape with only throwing in two or three new songs; how that really changes the art of your set and the development of your set, not just because the songs each have their own style. It really strongly affects the energy of the show and music is just the impossible and invisible thing that I can think of and it’s just really nice to see the affect that it has on the audience. The three songs that we’re playing, of course in addition to “Best I Ever Had”, is a contender called “Make A Move”, of course, and another song called “Who’s Gonna Save Us”, which is really pretty. They all have their own thing and “Who’s Gonna Save Us” is not so epic after a while but it gives me the opportunity to walk out into the audience and it’s been a really great tour to do that. It feels like the audience and I have connected and it doesn’t feel like each artist has their own audience, like there’s three different tribes out there, it feels like one great crowd there for the music and they’re all there to have one great experience and that really makes the tour great. Alicia: How do you think that you have developed over the years as an artist?Gavin: Well hopefully I’ve improved. Although that’s a vague thing to say; when you first start touring, when you first put out your album, there’s only one first time, one first discovery for listeners who come in early and they always have that first album, that first moment, so in a sense you’re always competing with that initial image that was portrayed. Of course you’re competing in your fan’s minds with that era in their life, the music represents a certain moment in their timeline, like their first job or when they start college or something like that. You’re always hoping to be able to make an album that can continue to bring that freshness that your first album had and the first time someone listened to you. In a way I think that I’ve become more honest as a writer. Alicia: Is there anything you would like to conclude this interview with?Gavin: Umm sure, come to a show. Come to a show and the album comes out late September.Check out Gavin DeGraw on the following sites: WebsiteFacebookTwitter